Alison Lundergan Grimes: I answer to the people, not the president

FRANKFORT, Ky., May 22 (UPI) -- With the nominees set, rhetoric is heating is heating up in Kentucky's 2014 Senate race. The day after winning her party's primary, Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes rolled out a campaign ad aimed at deterring local concern that she'll become a rubberstamp for President Barack Obama.

"No matter who the president is, I won't answer to them," the ad says. "I'll only answer to you."

"It's time Washington put the good of our people ahead of the bad that comes from acting petty and small. We've had too much of that for too long."

Not to be outdone, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell fired the first shots in the debate for the debates, demanding three over the course of the summer.

"In order to present our views fairly and without interpretation by traditional media filters, I believe we should participate in three traditional Lincoln-Douglas style debates moderated only by a single timekeeper/moderator," McConnell said in a statement. "By conducting these debates without an audience, without props and without notes, it will allow for an unvarnished exchange of views for Kentuckians to evaluate."

"I believe that in order to present our views before Kentuckians are inundated with advertising, we should agree to hold the first of these three debates before the Fourth of July. This will allow for our first real exchange of ideas a full calendar year after you announced your candidacy."

Grimes currently trails McConnell by less than a single point in the latest polls.